Thermostat housing & Cooling

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phillirp

New Member
I've just bought a 1964 2000SC. After 400miles, I've seen the temp gradually rise, until it overheated last night. Looking at it I'm pretty sure that the thermostat has got stuck shut, and that the engine needs a good flush out.

Now for the problem. the cover over the stat is held on with 3 studs. I can see that the housing is moving freely on 2 of them , but appear seized on the last stud, and can see the stud moving with the housing.

Is this a common 4 cylinder problem, and how easy is it to either remove the stud in situ, or deliberately break the housing to save the head? (and replace with a 2nd hand one?)
 
You can get the studs
so you may be able to do what i had to do - cut of the nuts (ouch) and gently prise the housing up- I used 2 stainless steel kitchen knifes as wedges/ It worked, I got new studs from Ray weekly. all ok since then( after I got radiator recored)

Derek
 
Gentle aplication of heat can also help shift stuck studs, just dont apply too much or the aluminium will be damaged. Also it is worth removing the side plates and giving everything inside the jacket a good clean that way as well. It is a long, painful, and frustrating job but you will be blown away by the amount of silt that will come out!
I also have a 64 2000, and it had not been done for its entire life, and I pulled nearly a kilo of crud out of the jackets the first time I rebuilt it. :(
Cheers
GUY
 
Another popular mod on the four cylinder cars is to run a flexible narrow hose from the radiator to an expansion tank and to replace the radiator cap with a blanking plug which you can get from any worthwhile motor factors. I use an A Series Metro expansion tank complete with its 114psi cap with no problems on my car.
 
Just to resurrect this thread...

When I picked up my '74 2200SC two weeks ago she was running a bit cold so I did the usual checks and eventually put in an order for a new thermostat. It arrived yesterday... and the radiator let go in a HUGE way this lunchtime.
So...
Thinking that as the coolant was already drained, albeit the hard way, I’d sort the thermostat before tackling the leak. All of the obstructing gubbins came away nicely, as did the 3 bolts holding the top housing on and with a little jiggling the housing began to rise on two out the three studs but not on the third. I gave it a tap with the Scottish screwdriver and the third stud gave a sorry "frink" and snapped off flush with the engine block. I'm guessing you can't make do with two studs and some old window putty... Any advise or would y'all rather have a giggle at my expense?
 
The only way is drill it out, but you've got to drill dead centre down the remains of the stud, and as the stud is steel if you slip it's very easy to do damage to the aluminium head. Then re tap the hole.
Not a nice job!
 
Couple of other stud removal options, - reverse drills, as the name suggests, these work backwards and often the stud will start to come out once the drill bites in.
Second option is stud removal bits, with these you drill a hole in the remains of the stud and then screw the bit in (again reverse thread), which hopefully gets the stud remains moving out.
Make sure you give it a good soaking in WD40 and apply a bit of heat too before trying these, more chance of the stud actually moving.
 
Both of the above options are available, but in practice I've never found them to work. They snap, and then you've got a hardened steel tool to drill out.
 
I used one of the above mentioned stud removal bits on my Lambretta engine casing once and as harveyp6 says, it snapped of inside which made it nigh on impossible to drill out as they are made of hardened steel. I had to take it down to a local engineers who had to really oversize the hole then aluminium plug it, to enable it to be tapped again then re-machine the gasket face! Be carefull and good luck.
 
If you have a mig welder you can sometimes release stuck nuts and studs my welding a piece of bar to the top. The heat can break down the corrosion and the bar gives a bit of leaverage.

Good substitute if you don't have any other way of heating (i.e. oxy)
 
Harvey, your offer is starting to look good... the drill bit broke... I'm off to the garden centre to get a skip-load of compost... :(
 
Composts no good, you need a gallon of petrol and a box of matches :)
Was it a normal drill bit that snapped ?
 
Bosch HSS... The first two bits held up ok, the third beggar wussed out on me. I'd go with the Molotov approach but I'm worried the carbon emissions would breach the Kiyoto Agreement so I'll take the environmentally sound approach. :D
 
Update, if anyone is interested... I know I’m not...
Well, the thermostat is now back in place, new stud 'n' all. However... it now seems #1 cylinder isn't a happy chappy, a victim of valve seat recession... You've got to love these old cars eh!
 
She's back on the road... VSR turned out to be a cracked exhaust valve (glad I forked out for a new head... NOT!) Anyroad, after a lot of shim-shuffling she's back in one piece and thanks to G.F&D Greens of Aisthorpe (near Lincoln) 01522 730258 she's running sweet as a nut. So I now have a 2.2l SC cylinder head and half a ton of compost if anyone is interested...
PS Sorry Harvey, maybe next time eh!
:D
 
I never saw this post before but I had the same thing.

I got a replacement engine, stripped, cleaned and painted it out of the car. Fitted it and dropped it back in the car. I went put a new thermostat in and as you had one stud was broken flush to the head.

I had a spare thermostat cover so put that on and drilled down and tapped a new thread. since I used the cover the hole was spot on.

Glad you got sorted out.

Colin
 
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